[source] 809 - “Non-Compete Clause” Written by: Kim Beyer-Johnson "Applejack and Rainbow Dash take the friendship students on a teamwork learning field trip, and accidentally show the students the opposite… (More)

An MLP fandom-based panel and another Steven Universe panel have been added to the schedule at San Diego Comic Con.

On Saturday, July 22nd, a panel about Bronies will take place in Grand 1 & 2 at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina featuring representatives from BronyCAN, Everfree Northwest, Equestria LA, Pacific Pony Con, and the SoCal Bronies group. Below is the full description of the event.

Sunday, July 23rd at 10am (pacific time), there will be an arts and origins panel for Steven Universe with series creator Rebecca Sugar to promote the upcoming art book from the show.

Steven Universe: Arts and Origins

Join Steven Universe creator Rebecca Sugar for her first San Diego Comic-Con intimate conversation as she discusses the making of the official behind-the-scenes art book, Steven Universe: Art & Origins, for the Emmy Award-nominated TV series. Accompanied by Ian Jones-Quartey and the book’s author, Chris McDonnell, she will lead a conversation covering a wide range of topics, including influences; the process in developing the characters, design, and music for Steven Universe ; and art from the new book, plus a fan Q&A.

It’s a couple weeks away before San Diego Comic Con. My Little Pony, Steven Universe, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil will all have Friday (July 21st) panels in San Diego. Below are the full details (all times Pacific):

My Little Pony

Friday, July 21st, 10:30am-11:30am

Room 6A

The cast and creatives behind My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls share details of the making of the popular animated series. Fans will also get a look into the rest of season 7, a sneak peek in to My Little Pony: The Movie coming this fall, and more, followed by a Q&A.

Steven Universe

Friday, July 21st, 11:00am-12:00pm

Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront

Hang out with Rebecca Sugar, Steven, and the Gems and be the first to hear the latest updates from Beach City. That’s right, CN is bringing your favorite Steven Universe characters back to the ballroom! They’ve got never-before-seen footage, exciting announcements, and answers to all your burning questions! Okay . . . maybe not all of them. Join Rebecca Sugar (creator), Deedee Magno-Hall (voice of Pearl), Michaela Dietz (voice of Amethyst), Estelle (voice of Garnet), and A. J. Michalka (voice of Stevonnie) with half-Gem/half-human Steven Universe Zach Callison serving as half-guest/half-moderator.

Disney XD’s Star vs. The Forces of Evil and Milo Murphy’s Law

Friday, July 21st, 2:15pm-3:15pm

Room 6A

It’s gonna get a little weird, a little wild, and a little accident-prone as the creators and stars of Disney XD’s Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Milo Murphy’s Law team up to give you the latest exciting news about their shows, answer questions, and share clips exclusive to Comic-Con! Join Star creator Daron Nefcy, Eden Sher (Star), Adam McArthur (Marco), Milo creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, and “Weird Al” Yankovic (Milo) for a double dose of Disney XD Animation.

Welcome to Season Five. Steven and Lars are stuck inside Topaz. Lars regrets running away and being afraid all the time while Steven’s plan of sacrificing himself has not come completely to fruition. Topaz, touched by Steven and Lars’s conversation tries to help them escape, but Aquamarine stops it. Topaz was going to destabilize Aqua, but would later face being shattered if they did.

Steven is set to go to “The Trial” and is given a blue zircon to help present his case—which is “I’m Rose Quartz and I shattered Pink Diamond even though as Steven I have no real idea how I did it.” Yellow Diamond wants to skip the formalities and shatter Steven, but Blue still wishes to know how Pink was shattered. While Yellow and Blue argue instead of making green, Steven and Lars escape in a blue palanquin and deep into Homeworld.

Steven and Lars try to evade the robonoids who can shoot and shatter rocks and gems, but not Lars as we will see. Steven and Lars come across a group of deformed gems called Off Colors. They include a six-gem fusion named Flourite, Padparadscha (a sapphire who can only see the past), a Rhodonite which has the opposite personality of Sardonyx, and conjoined Rutile twins. The Robonoids come, but Lars sums up his courage and helps destroy the Robonoids with Steven.

It seems as though Lars pays the ultimate sacrifice until Steven heals him, turns him pink, and gives him special powers in the process. Those special powers allow Steven to visit the dimension accessible through Lion’s mane. In fact, he can get out of Lion’s mane as well. So Steven can go inside “Lars’ Head” and come out through Lion’s mane. Steven offers the others come with him (apart from Lars who can’t go himself), but refuse and vow to look for another way instead of leaving Lars.

Steven comes back to the Crystal Gems, Greg, and Connie, and we have no idea when Season Five will continue. We also get no answers as to what really happened to Pink Diamond, either.

Obviously, the best part of this four-parter was when Lars summed up his courage in the third part. No matter how afraid you might be, sometimes you have to sum up your courage anyway. That’s been the Mane Six in MLP, that’s been Steven and the Gems in this show, that’s Lars now. You really have to give him credit for taking on the robonoids to save others to the point of sacrificing himself.

I would say that this was remarkable four-parter, but I cannot. “Stuck Together” and “The Trial” took too long to develop, though it leaves us with Blue Diamond determined to know the truth—which is probably why there was a trial in the first place. It also leaves many wishing that Aquamarine gets poofed in a later episode. We will certainly see the Diamonds (maybe White as well) and the Off Colors again, but the four-parter leaves us with more questions than answers. In fact, it didn’t give us any. Not even when the series will return to give us some answers.

Rebecca Sugar is “Shooting for the Moon” for Season Five (which was originally going to be the second part of Season Three before Cartoon Network Math split things up and made the first part Season Four). So while it gives Lars some purpose, some interesting new characters, and some intrigue; it left us no clue as to where things are going from here. That’s the most frustrating part.

“Steven and Lars, stuck inside Topaz, try to look for a way to escape the Homeworld-bound ship. While bonding, their heartfelt conversation earns them Topaz’s sympathy.“

Transcript

Direct Video

502 – “The Trial”

Written by: Paul Villeco, Katie Mitroff

“Steven goes to court against Blue and Yellow Diamond to determine his (or rather Rose Quartz’s) fate. During the trial, Steven’s defendant, Moonstone, shares facts about Pink Diamond’s fate that were unknown to Steven.“

Transcript

Direct Video

Here we find Lars has a gift for baking, but doesn’t want to share it with anyone afraid people will think it’s not cool. Lars, Steven, and Sadie are invited to a pot luck by the cool kids. Steven tries to get Lars to come with his pastries, but he bails (or so Steven and Sadie think). Sadie, who brought paper plates, wonders if she should fix her life first before Lars’s. Well, I feel that it might have to wait as those shadowy figures were following.

We’ll see where this all leads on Thursday.

StatManDan

“Are You My Dad” & “I Am My Mom”

As a reminder, it is my policy to only review episodes when they have their official US Release. So the “Wanted” special review will take place after Memorial Day (May 29th).

This is what everything was leading up to. Add Jamie and Connie to the list of abducted and we meet a gem named Aquamarine who has a fusion named Topaz and who keeps asking, “Are you my Dad?” Gems do not have Dads. ‘My Dad’ is part of a list of humans given from Steven to Peridot way back in “Marble Madness.” Lars, Sadie, Connie, Jamie, and Onion so happened to be on the list. ‘My Dad’ is actually Greg.

Both Aquamarine and Topaz appear to have been sent by Blue and Yellow Diamond to collect them for Pink Diamond’s Zoo according to the Crystal Gems. Steven attempts to sacrifice himself by saying he is ‘my Dad’ in an attempt to rescue his friends. Steven feeling guilty that he is the cause of all the troubles, then offers himself as Rose in exchange for his friends’ freedom (except for Lars who is still stuck in the spaceship). That ends Season Four with Season Five starting with the one-hour “Wanted” special on Memorial Day.

We didn’t know how this Steven Bomb was going to build, but the end result was quite explosive (no pun intended). Steven is very conflicted at this moment. On one hand, he believes that his Mom is a war criminal and thus, he is part war criminal since he has Rose’s gem. Now, he is determined to end this once and for all. Things are about to come to a head in Season Five.